It’s time for another Tuesday trip down memory lane squirrel watching at the local park!  This week’s journey takes us back to the morning of Thursday August 24, 2017, three days after the much ballyhooed American solar eclipse, and it seemed to have an effect on the squirrels.  This is one of the more interesting collections of park squirrel photos I have in my archive, and contains easily my favorite picture of them all.  You wouldn’t know it from the bland title card for this week, but trust me, it’ll be like squirrels gone wild, and you might even learn something!

Yes, the squirrel pervert strikes again, taking pictures from down under…

Would you trust that thin branch to hold you that high up in the air?  Squirrels are crazy!

Tennis anyone?

No thanks, I’ll just sit under the bleachers.

Or perhaps bowling is your sport of choice?

Of course, that wasn’t a bowling ball the squirrel was holding… it was a walnut!  The walnuts we know and love actually grow inside of this hard green shell, and they’re plentiful in the park in late summer.  You can see the tooth marks where the squirrel was trying to chew through the husk before he noticed me and dropped it.  You can learn more about walnuts in this old post of mine that draws a lot of Google searches from other people who didn’t know about the walnut’s green home, or you can stay tuned to this post later for a practical demonstration….

Hnelp Nme!

This picture never fails to crack me up.  It looks like he has his nose stuck in that nut…. maybe from trying to crack it on his forehead like a beer can?

The nut goes in your mouth, not your nose, dude!

You tell him!

Are you OK?  He looks a bit nervous about something…

SURPRISE!!!!

A sneak attack in progress…

I was trying to follow these two squirrels high up in this tree, and lost track of them.  So I scanned through the area using the zoom on my camera.  That squirrel on the right, with the nut in his mouth.  I finally managed to find him……

Doing this!!!!

Hello down there!

Yes, it’s the legendary Batsquirrel!

You look weird upside down, human!

Speak for yourself, dude!  You’re a good 50 to 70 feet up in that tree hanging upside down like a possum!  Are you nuts or something!?!?

Speaking of nuts, I got a real tasty one here! Wanna come up here and share?

No, of course I don’t!  I’d very much NOT like to fall on my head.  If I tried to hang upside down by my toenails, it wouldn’t be pretty…

Eh, suit yourself then! Nom, nom, nom…

Of all the daredevilish things I’ve seen squirrels do, Batsquirrel takes the nutty cake!

On the lighter side of things…. here’s a see through golden tailed squirrel with the sun lighting up his amber highlights.

If you look closely, you can see some walnut still hanging in this tree.  Wanna watch the magic happen now?

Do I have to?

No, it’s a free country.  Do whatever you like.  But you’ll miss out on the big reveal….

Observe…

Chomp…

Chomp, chomp, chomp…

Just about to the good part…

A little more…

Voila!  The real walnut!  And no visit to the dentist required…

That’s impressive. But I’ll stick to ready to eat nuts…

You do that, little squirrel…

And with a final picture for those of you with a squirrel foot fetish, we’ll end this week’s trip to the park!  Join me next week for my very first visit in the dead of Autumn!  Be sure to pack a light jacket…